What You Need To Know: The Badgers have been an NCAA Tournament no. 1 seed on seven previous occasions. In all but one of those years, Wisconsin advanced to the Frozen Four.

Burning Question: Will Wisconsin experience a senior moment in 2014? No team in the tournament field has gotten more from its fourth-year players, who’ve scored 63 of the team’s 118 goals in 2013-14. With nine seniors gone after this season and early departures (Kerdiles? McCabe? Rumpel?) a distinct possibility, is there a sense this is the Badgers’ best chance at an NCAA title with a rebuild on the horizon?

Most Recent Wisconsin Line Chart

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17-Nic Kerdiles

8-Mark Zengerle

7-Tyler Barnes

Zengerle, who won MVP honors in last weekend’s Big Ten tournament, enters regional play with a nine-game point streak during which he’s scored six goals and 12 assists.

What You Need To Know: The Bulldogs split a season-opening series with Colgate in Hamiliton and later lost to the Raiders in January when the two met in Minneapolis as part of the Mariucci Classic.

Burning Question: Can the Bulldogs get the first goal, and then to three? Ferris State is 5-8-2 this season when scoring two or fewer goals and 23-2-1 when notching three or more goals. Couple that with the Bulldogs’ proclivity for playing with the lead–a 20-1-0 record when leading after one period and a 21-0-1 mark when up after two–and you’ve got Ferris’ recipe for success.

Most Recent Ferris State Line Chart

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18-Andy Huff

8-Cory Kane

20-Gerald Mayhew

Kane, the Bulldogs’ third-leading scorer, has scored eight of his 13 goals and 19 of his with 30 points in his team’s last 14 games.

What You Need To Know: Coffee is for closers–and Colgate. After posing a 3-11-2 mark down the stretch to end the 2012-13 campaign, the Raiders ended this season with a 13-4-3 record this year.

Burning Question: Are the Raiders ready for prime time? Outside of forward Mike McCann and backup goalie Eric Mihalik, the rest of the Colgate lineup has at least one year of eligibility remaining. Perhaps this NCAA trip will serve as a launching pad to future success not unlike Union’s national tournament debut in 2011.

Most Recent Colgate Line Chart

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15-Darcy Murphy

21-Mike Borkowski

13-Dan Gentzler

The Raiders’ sophomore class has accounted for 69 of the team’s 108 goals; Colgate’s top five scorers are all second-year players.

What You Need To Know: North Dakota is making its 12th straight NCAA Tournament appearance, the longest active streak in Division I hockey.

Burning Question: Is North Dakota’s March mediocrity just a hiccup? Dave Hakstol’s team has been sensational over the last three-plus months, posting an 18-6-1 mark since Dec. 1. But NoDak is just 4-4-0 in its last eight games. Which sample size is more indicative of the team’s current state? With a very good Wisconsin team awaiting in the first round, we’ll know the answer soon.

Most Recent North Dakota Line Chart

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9-Drake Caggiula

16-Mark MacMillan

15-Michael Parks

Grimaldi’s 36 points are the fewest to lead North Dakota since 1993-94, when Landon Wilson paced the team with 33 points in Gino Gasparini’s final season behind the bench in Grand Forks.

What You Need To Know: The Eagles are 2-3-0 against Notre Dame this season and 24-4-4 against everyone else.

Burning Question: Coach Jerry York has guided Boston College to three national championships in the last six seasons by getting his team to peak at precisely the right time. Notre Dame proved the Eagles to be slightly mortal by beating them three times in four tries in March. Was it just a case of BC running into a red-hot opponent that matched up really well with them, or did the Eagles prematurely reach their apex?

Most Recent Boston College Line Chart

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13-Johnny Gaudreau

24-Bill Arnold

12-Kevin Hayes

Gaudreau, the leading candidate for the 2014 Hobey Baker Award, scored at least one point in all but two of the Eagles’ games this season and had a 31-game point streak snapped in BC’s 4-2 loss to Notre Dame two weeks ago.

What You Need To Know: The River Hawks have scored a total of 17 goals in their 10 losses (1.7 goals per game) and 94 goals in their other 29 games (3.24 goals per game.)

Burning Question: UMass Lowell doesn’t score a ton, but with sophomore Connor Hellebuyck in goal, it’s not a necessity. That said, the River Hawks draw high-scoring Minnesota State in the opening round and could face Boston College, the nation’s best offense, in the regional final. Can the country’s top defensive team stay in shut-down mode, or will the River Hawks need to outscore an opponent in order to advance?

Most Recent UMass Lowell Line Chart

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18-A.J. White

14-Joe Pendenza

12-Josh Holmstrom

Sophomore F Adam Chapie, the team’s second-leading scorer, has missed UML’s last three games with an undisclosed injury. He also leads the River Hawks in power-play goals (5) and game-winning goals (5).

What You Need To Know: The Mavericks are the oldest team in this year’s tournament field with an average age of 22.61 years.

Burning Question: Minnesota State hasn’t lost since Jan. 31 when it dropped a 5-2 decision. In the 13 ensuing games the Mavericks went 12-0-1, outscoring its foes by a 50-16 margin. However, all but two of those wins came against teams with sub-.500 records. Will the Mavericks’ dominance over weaker competition during the latter third of the season hurt them in Worcester?

Most Recent Minnesota State Line Chart

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21-Chase Grant

18-Matt Leitner

9-Bryce Gervais

McInnis (21 goals) and Lafontaine (20 goals) are the first Mavs duo to score 20+ goals in a season since Shane Joseph (29) and Grant Stevenson (27) did it back in 2002-03.

What You Need To Know: The Pioneers enter the tournament with a season-high, four-game winning streak. Prior to that, Denver had won three games in a row on one occasion.

Burning Question: Denver’s success likely hinges on veteran goalie Sam Brittain, not just for his leadership but also his play; The Pioneers are the lowest-scoring team in the tournament field, averaging just 2.68 goals per game. Can Brittain keep foes at bay long enough for his offensively challenged teammates to find the back of the net?

Most Recent Denver Line Chart

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8-Trevor Moore

19-Daniel Doremus

12-Ty Loney

The Pioneers have more freshmen on their roster (11) than any other team in the NCAA Tournament field. Incidentally, Boston College, DU’s first-round opponent, has 10 rookies on its roster.

The Big Ten tournament poses a bit of a different challenge for five of the six teams competing in St. Paul—it’s the first postseason foray for Penn State. The remaining teams are accustomed to easing into the league playoffs with a best-of-three series. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly easing into the postseason, but it wasn’t a one-and-done like the B1G tourney. There was a little margin for error, room for one flat performance. Not this time.

Keep an eye on: Michigan. Yeah, all six teams are playing for the league’s postseason title, but Michigan has the most to gain (or lose) this weekend in St. Paul. Barring wholesale upsets in other league tournaments, the Wolverines should qualify for the NCAA tournament with just one win. Therein lies the rub—Michigan and Penn State, the Wolverines’ opening-round opponent, split their regular-season series. Michigan has a tendency this season to play to the level of its opponent; how will they respond against the Nittany Lions?

The pick: Minnesota. It’s hard to envision this tournament not boiling down to a Minnesota-Wisconsin final—the Gophers and Badgers have been the class of the Big Ten from the start. The season series between the two was a draw at two wins apiece with each team defending its home ice, so they’re quite evenly matched. That said, Minnesota’s just a little deeper offensively and just a little better in goal.

Anyone else feel thrown for a loop this month because of the calendar? I suppose it’s because there are five full weekends in March, because it seems like we should be prepping for conference finals this weekend and tuning in to the NCAA Tournament selection show Sunday. But, no, it’s league tournament quarterfinal weekend for everyone except for the Big Ten, where they’re still playing regular-season games.

We’ll take a glance at the Big Ten tournament next week. Front and center now are the playoffs in Atlantic Hockey, ECAC Hockey, Hockey East, the NCHC, and the WCHA. By the way, here’s your link to tournaments results for all six leagues.

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It’s the last weekend of the regular season, or the second-to-last weekend, or the third-to-last weekend depending on the conference. What does that have to do with this installment of the INCH Top Whatever? Nothing, other than providing a convenient
lead-in to our list of the top teams in the country.

1. Boston College (25-4-4/16-1-2 Hockey East): Obscure statistics are kinda my thing. Here’s one I dubbed dagger goals: BC forward Kevin Hayes (pictured, right) has five goals this season in the first minute or last minute of a period or overtime when the Eagles and their opponent are tied.

2. Minnesota (21-4-5/10-2-2 Big Ten): The key to beating the Gophers may be sticking with them through the game’s first 20 minutes. Minnesota is 7-4-4 this season when tied or trailing after one period; they’re 14-0-1 otherwise.

3. Union (22-6-4/16-3-1 ECAC Hockey): How close are the Dutch to being unbeaten this season? Five of their six losses are of one-goal variety; the sixth, a 5-3 defeat to Colgate, featured an empty net goal with 19 seconds left in regulation.

4. Ferris State (23-7-3/18-4-2 WCHA): The Bulldogs are averaging nearly a full goal per game more at home (55 goals in 14 games for an average of 3.93 goals per game) than on the road (50 goals in 17 games, an average of 2.94 goals per game.)

5. St. Cloud State (18-7-5/12-5-3 NCHC): Defenseman Andrew Prochno (pictured, right) will miss this weekend’s critical series with North Dakota, a critical loss for the Huskies. The junior is among Natty Ice’s leaders in defensemen scoring (19 points) and plus-minus rating (+17).

6. Wisconsin (19-9-2/10-5-1 Big Ten): Joel Rumpel is challenging Michigan State’s Jake Hildebrand for the title of best goaltender in the Big Ten. In seven February starts, Rumpel is 5-1-1 with a 1.42 GAA and a .954 save percentage.

7. North Dakota (18-9-3/13-7-0 NCHC): NoDak is 13-2-1 since its Nov. 29 loss to St. Lawrence. During that 16-game stretch, goalie Zane Gothberg is 11-0-1 with a 1.66 GAA and a .934 save percentage.

8. UMass Lowell (20-8-4/10-5-3 Hockey East): The River Hawks are 9-0-2 in Hockey East play when leading after one period and 1-5-1 when trailing or tied after the first 20 minutes.

9. Quinnipiac (21-8-5/11-6-3 ECAC Hockey): Spent some time poking around for an interesting note on the Bobcats. Can’t really find anything. That’s not really on me, is it?

10. Northeastern (18-10-4/10-6-2 Hockey East): Forwards Braden Pimm (18 goals) and Kevin Roy (17 goals) have a chance to become the first Huskies’ duo to score 20 or more goals in a season since J.F. Aube and Jordan Shields did it in 1994-95.

11. Colgate (16-11-5/12-5-3 ECAC Hockey): BC’s Thatcher Demko is the highest-profile freshman goalie in the country, but how about a nod to the Raiders’ Charlie Finn? Since Jan. 1, he’s 9-1-3 with a 1.89 GAA and a .934 save percentage.

12. Minnesota State (19-13-0/17-7-0 WCHA): The Mavericks (that’s leading scorer Jean-Paul Lafontaine pictured on the right) are one of three teams currently ranked among the top 18 nationally in scoring offense, scoring defense, power-play success rate, and penalty-killing percentage. Boston College and Quinnipiac are the others.

13. Cornell (14-7-5/10-6-4 ECAC Hockey): Cornell’s a good team, but this statistic sort of runs counter to that reality: The Big Red is 11-3-5 in games decided by two or fewer goals and 3-4-0 in games decided by three or more goals. So more often than not when Cornell loses, they really get shellacked.

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If you watch WTEN/WXXA-TV photographer Justin Andrews’s YouTube video of the aftermath of Saturday’s Union-Rensselaer game at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y., there’s a moment around the 48-second mark where Union coach Rick Bennett, while being restrained by officials, attempts to throw a punch at RPI coach Seth Appert.

Full disclosure: I’ve known Appert since we both worked at Denver in the late 1990s and consider him a friend. That relationship does not factor into this discussion, however.

Based on the clip, however, it appears Bennett’s fist connects with the helmet of Milos Bubela, an RPI player trying to keep the coaches separated.

Tossing a haymaker at an opposing player, one would assume, was not Bennett’s intent. But it sure looks like that’s what happened. If that’s the case, Bennett needs to be severely punished.

Look, I didn’t see the game. I don’t know what transpired leading up to that final faceoff and the ensuing chaos. I’m not absolving others involved in the fracas for their transgressions. They, too, should be punished.

That said, rule no. 1 for people of authority—coaches, officials, and the like—in amateur sports is never, ever get physical with a student-athlete from another team. What Bennett did wasn’t as egregious as ex-Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes slugging a Clemson player during the 1978 Gator Bowl, but it happened. And as Ohio State president Harold Enarson said the following day at a press conference announcing Hayes’ dismissal, “There isn’t a university or athletic conference in this country that would permit a coach to physically assault a college athlete.”

Sunday, Union athletic director Jim McLaughlin suspended Bennett for the team’s next two games. He’s still allowed to run practices during the week. There’s also the chance ECAC Hockey commissioner Steve Hagwell could discipline Bennett. There’s also a chance—a pretty good one, in fact—that it won’t be enough.

So what constitutes an appropriate punishment? Should Bennett be fired? Without talking to anyone involved in the melee, I’m fairly confident he wasn’t trying to slug Bubela. I could give Bennett the benefit of the doubt, but zero-tolerance types could make a pretty strong case for his ouster.

Putting intent aside, however, this sure looks like a case of a coach making physical contact with an opposing player.

That just can’t happen—ever. Bennett must be suspended for the rest of this season.

You know that old saying about a body in motion staying in motion and a body at rest saying at rest? That’s how it works with writing. Once you stop, it’s a bitch to start up again. That and everything I felt like talking about seemed more like complaining. Like outdoor hockey games. They suck and everyone knows they suck, but you don’t really need me to tell you that. I was one step from becoming Abe Simpson.

Anyway, here are some teams ranked from best to not-quite-as-good-but-still-pretty-good. If your favorite team isn’t mentioned, make your own list or root for a better program. On with the countdown …

1. Minnesota (17-2-3/7-0-1): The Gophers have been the top team since Day One. For most of the season, they’ve been the undisputed No. 1—as in, no one has been nearly as good—but BC is rapidly closing that gap.

2. Boston College (17-4-3/11-1-1): If there’s any question forward Johnny Gaudreau (48 points in 24 games) isn’t the best player in college hockey, I’m here to tell you there’s not. If he doesn’t win the Hobey, they should just stop giving out the award.

3. Quinnipiac (18-4-5/8-2-3): There’s not much of a difference between Nos. 3-6 on this list. Someone could completely rearrange these four spots and I wouldn’t have a problem with it. I guess I favor the Bobcats because the hardest thing to do in hockey is score goals, and they’re pretty good at that.

4. Union (15-4-3/9-2-0): Is Shayne Gostisbehere Union’s best player? Probably, but goalie Colin Stevens (that’s him on the right) would get my vote for team MVP.

5. Ferris State (17-5-3/12-2-2): The Bulldogs are 7-4-3 when tied or trailing after the first period. Seems like a recipe for success against Ferris until you see they’ve outscored opponents by a 30-11 margin in the game’s first 20 minutes.

6. St. Cloud State (12-4-4/7-3-2): The Huskies have five NHL draft picks on their roster. Three of them (Johnny Brodzinski, Nic Dowd, and Kevin Gravel) are property of the Los Angeles Kings. That has nothing to do with SCSU’s play this season. It’s just an interesting factoid. Use it at your next social event.

7. Wisconsin (13-6-1/4-2-0): Did you know how crummy the Badgers have been away from home? Granted, they’ve only played six road games, but Bucky has one win and 12 goals in those half-dozen matches. That compares to 12 wins and 59 goals in 14 games at Kohl Center.

8. Northeastern (14-7-3/7-4-1): Saw the Huskies in person about six weeks ago and was impressed, but I can’t put a finger on what it was I liked. One thing that struck me was they played with a lot of poise and confidence, which would explain why they’ve been so good in one-goal games (5-1).

9. Providence (14-5-5/6-4-1): I’m not as high on the Friars than everyone else, it appears, probably because they’ve only got one win in their last six games. Prior to scoring seven in its win against Colorado College last Saturday, Providence had a total of eight goals in its previous five games.

10. UMass Lowell (15-6-2/5-3-1): With the emergence of Connor Hellebuyck last season, Doug Carr, who was terrific as a sophomore in 2011-12, almost became an afterthought in goal. This season, the two share duties almost equally and have been formidable, combining for a 1.85 GAA and a .935 save percentage.

11. North Dakota (12-7-3/7-5-0): Goaltender Zane Gothberg (pictured, right) is out indefinitely due to injury. Too bad, because NoDak really hit its stride when he took the reins at No. 1 goalie. During the team’s current nine-game unbeaten streak, Gothberg is 8-0-1 with a 1.76 GAA and a .923 save percentage.

12. Clarkson (15-7-2/8-2-0): I can typically find at least one statistic that explains a team’s success, but not in Clarkson’s case.They’re not particularly high scoring nor are they overly stingy on defense, and their special teams are mediocre. Oh, here it is—the Golden Knights are 12-3 in one-goal games.

13. Cornell (9-4-4/5-3-3): Some readers are certainly asking, Cornell ahead of Yale? Yes, because the Big Red has been better than the Elis as of late (6-1-3 over the last 10 games including a five-game unbeaten streak.)

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In the grand scheme of things, hockey is not all that important. Sure, if you’re a coach or a general manager or a player at a high level and the game is your livelihood, it’s a big deal. But for most of us, it’s a pastime, a diversion.

Of course, some of us really need the diversion.

There’s a hockey rink on a NATO military base near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Canadian troops—that country’s military used to run the base—built the rink in their spare time. It’s an unlikely spot for hockey, what with daytime highs routinely approaching triple digits and, you know, the ongoing conflict that brought forces from a variety of nations to this mountainous land sandwiched between Iran and Pakistan.

Three nights a week, the concrete slab on the dusty base buzzes with activity as three teams—the United States Army, the U.S. Navy, and one comprised of Slovakian forces—play in what amounts to a ball hockey rec league.

My cousin*, a Minnesota season ticket holder and an Army reservist, was dispatched to Afghanistan in August. His Army team, he said, isn’t very good, but they beat the Navy a couple times and upset the Slovaks once.

* I’m not sure if I’m allowed to mention his name—”I can’t tell you our mission here or what I’m doing,” he wrote in an e-mail shortly after he was deployed—so I’ll leave it out of this story.

“[The Slovaks] have one or two guys that did play in some league in Europe for a while,” he wrote.

“You guys need anything?” I wrote back, not sure how (or if) I could help.

He replied that the guys in Kandahar have one issue: Their equipment, primarily the sticks, take a severe beating. The Detroit Red Wings donated some sticks (including a few, reportedly, from coach Mike Babcock’s personal stash) a while back, but the cement rink quickly chews them to nubs. Gloves, repeatedly soaked with perspiration and then baked in the dry, 100-degree heat, don’t last too long, either. Surprisingly, the goaltending equipment—both netminders are completely outfitted—holds up pretty well, as do the shin pads.

My mission, therefore, is figuring out a way to collect a few branches and shipping them off to Kandahar. And I’m looking for your advice.

Finding the sticks and other gear is probably the easy part, but I’m certainly willing to track down leads you readers might have. Getting the stuff overseas—I’ve never sent anything to Canada, let alone Afghanistan—is a different story. Any insight folks out there might have is greatly appreciated. E-mail me here with your comments, and thanks in advance for your assistance.

While I’m certainly appreciative of the efforts of our armed forces at home and abroad, I’m not overly patriotic. When this opportunity presented itself, it seemed like a cool thing for me to do. It’s right in my wheelhouse. Reading the following in an e-mail from my cousin a few weeks ago sealed the deal.

“Who woulda thought that traveling over 5,000 miles from home,” he wrote, “and I would find myself assisting on the game winner versus the Navy?”